After 6-year struggle, DTC buses to get new GPS units next year

The trackers will help DTC check status of its operational buses on a real-time basis and help the corporation to fix accountability by penalising the driver or the conductor in case of inordinate delay.

After plying on city roads with a faulty tracking system for over six years, DTC buses will now be equipped with new GPS units by February 2018.

Once installed in every bus, the GPS (global positioning system) trackers will help Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to check status of its operational bus on a real-time basis (HT FILE)

Once installed in every bus, the GPS (global positioning system) trackers will help Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to check status of its operational bus on a real-time basis. Apart from ensuring safety of passengers, it will also enable the corporation to fix accountability by penalising the driver or the conductor in case of inordinate delay in completing a trip or a change in the authorised bus route.

The decision to reinstall GPS in buses was taken by the Delhi government in a recent meeting chaired by transport minister Kailash Gahlot. “We are preparing the tender document for installation of GPS in DTC buses, which shall be ready by next week. The tender is being prepared on ‘cost model’ which simply means DTC will directly pay to the concessionaire,” a DTC official said.

In September, Hindustan Times had reported how the DTC is unable to track any of its 3,780 buses as the GPS installed in all of them are out of order. The project to install GPS in buses was launched in 2010 after a number of erstwhile Blue Line bus drivers were held for accidents.

The task of installing and maintaining the GPS in DTC and cluster or orange buses was at that time given to the Delhi Integrated Multimodal System (DIMTS), a company where the Delhi government has 50% stake.

Even as these machines are performing well in all cluster or orange buses till date, those fitted in DTC buses became obsolete within a year of getting launched. Officials said the reasons for the failure of the system in DTC buses were multiple including manhandling and software issues.

The project had cost the government around Rs 35 crore and now it has already cancelled its contract with the DIMTS stating that its ‘Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLS) was “non workable”, “inefficient” and “unreliable.”

Read: As DTC struggles with GPS in its buses, cluster buses seem to have got it right

When Hindustan Times asked DIMTS as to why the tracking system which works fine in the cluster buses operated by them failed in the DTC buses, it blamed “lack of integration.”

“The system was not integrated well by the DTC despite imparting training sessions to its staff. In the depots, there were no fleet managers to ensure security of the devices while buses enter and leave the depot,” a DIMTS official told HT.

The DTC, on the other hand, claimed that DIMTS could not perform its responsibility as even the technicians it had deployed were “untrained, inadequate and inefficient.”